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COHfRIGKT DEPOSnC 



THE 
PURPOSE OF LIFE 



By 

JAMES A. ^ALTERS 



Published for the Welden Book Co. 
1922 



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Copyright, 1922 

BY 

JAMES A. WALTEES 



m 17 lb22 



HAMMOND PRESS 

W. B. CONKEY COMPANY 

CHICAQO 



C1A682383 



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®o Ml? Bear Cftiltircn 

WILLIAM ELDON, 

MARGARET, ESTHER, 

and FRANCES LOUISE WALTERS 

This Little Volume is Affectionately 
Dedicated by the Author 



PREFACE 

IN presenting this little volume to the public, I 
am only using the printed page, that I may 
reach a larger number of people than would be 
possible in any other way ; and for the same reason 
that I would awaken a sleeping family in a burn- 
ing dwelling, or wave a danger signal over a 
burning trestle, at the approach of a railway 
train. 

Without the Spirit of Christ, the individual 
or world, is lost, and that Spirit is love; and the 
only times Christ was not all tenderness and com- 
passion, was when dealing with hypocrisy and 
Pharisaism. 

This world is a most beautiful home for the 
human race, the possibilities of which are as yet 
scarcely suspected. The blessing of God is on it 
all, and only the ignorance, selfishness, and lazi- 
ness of man have failed to appropriate all of 
God's bounty to supply every need; 

A box of flowers in the window, a well-kept 
yard or lawn, a thrifty, well-tilled garden or farm, 



6 Preface 

all may be an act of worship, and a pleasure to 
our loving heavenly Father, helping Him to 
make a beautiful world; but many are depriving 
themselvies of the greatest blessing of all — the 
privilege of little children in their homes. The 
highest adornment of the world is happy, light- 
hearted, care-free children. 

The proper appreciation and care of the chil- 
dren of the home bring more wholesome disci- 
pline to the parents than any other one thing in 
the whole course of human life. And the powers 
God has given to the men and women of the 
world, if perverted to a base use, will be followed 
by the direct punishment, to be meted out to base 
impenitent souls. 

It is only out of my love for the souls of men 
and women, that I have given the consent of my 
mind to write and publish this book. And any 
good that it may accomplish is all due to an in- 
dulgent, loving, heavenly Father, who bought me 
with the blood of His only Son, Jesus. 

James A. Walters. 
Kewanna, Indiana, 
Aug. 14, 1922. 



CHAPTER I 

THE PURPOSE or LIFE 

When we go out and look at the sun in all his 
gorgeous splendor, the moon in her silvery bright- 
ness, or the stars in their sparkling beauty, we 
marvel and ask of ourselves the question, 
"Wherefore this wondrous display?" And why 
are they there? Of ourselves the only reply comes 
back, Why? 

When we travel over the Earth (either in im- 
agination or in reality), and see the wondrous 
variety spread out before us, lakes and rivers, 
mountains and valleys, great seas of forest, 
prairie or water ever in varying contrast, we ask 
again, Why? and the echoing answer again 
comes back, Why? In imagination again v/e view 
the world with its teeming millions of people, in 
numbers too great for the human mind to com- 
prehend and again we ask the time-old question, 
Why? 

The mind of man refuses to be convinced that 
these have always existed, that they are intermin- 

7 



8 The Purpose of Life 

able. There must have been a beginning, and if 
a beginning a cause, and if a cause a purpose. 

We view the great cities that man has built, the 
long railroads, the telegraph and telephone lines, 
the flocks and herds of men, the splendid farms 
and homes, the great ships that plow the seven 
seas with their cargoes of goods or men, and again 
the great interrogation of time is Why? and 
echoing back from the invisible of Eternity is the 
one inevitable reply. Why? We are ever seeking, 
but to the human mind alone the great secret is 
forever closed. 

In this world of ours the very lowest of animal 
life acts only by purpose. The larva in the water 
as the fly that floats over its surface, or the fishes 
that swim beneath, each and all have a purpose in 
every movement and as we ascend the scale of 
animate life, the birds and animals, the beasts of 
the forest or the flocks and herds on the plains, 
all have a purpose in every action — self-preserva- 
tion or pleasure. 

What of man? In view of the testimony of all 
the lower world, shall we dare to say that man, 
the highest even of our animal world, would act 
without a purpose, our intelligence would reject 
such a statement without a question. 



The Purpose of Life 9 

The framers of the constitution of our great 
country had solved that question in the affirma- 
tive, that man does have a motive in every act, 
and they stated that motive in unequivocal terms. 
Happiness and the pursuit of this purpose is 
the inalienable right of every man and this great 
government of ours with all its vast machinery is 
organized and perpetuated with that sole end in 
view. True, if one man wishes to promote his 
happiness at the expense of another man^s happi- 
ness he is going beyond his right and the guaran- 
tee of his country and thereby makes himself a 
subject for restraint. 

If we grant a purpose in action to the lowest 
of animate life and all the way up the scale of 
being to man, and to man himself, have we less 
reason to grant a purpose to the intelligence that 
created them and all the universe that we observe ? 

We have not yet attempted to name the power, 
but from the harmony which we observe through 
all the works of nature we are wont to admit that 
that power is intelligent. 

But man in his observation of his own weakness 
and frailty in conflict with many of the powers 
of nature is not always inclined to attribute to that 
power of creation a beneficent attitude toward 



10 The Purpose of Life 

himself. So we find in the mind of the untutored 
or undeveloped man, a fear or dread of the un- 
seen Creator. But happily for the race, among all 
people there have been a few more intelligent in 
mind and nobler in spirit through whom that infi- 
nite mind could communicate to the others of 
mankind. 

We are wont to give these men the name of 
prophets, or seers. And the very highest of these 
have given us a book or books that we call the 
Book of God. Man no longer gropes in darkness, 
for this book has revealed to us the Being which 
we call God, who created all things that we ob- 
serve. 

Its opening statement is, ''In the beginning 
God created'' The statement is clean cut, and 
plain, but man with his pigmy intellect has ever 
been trjang to pry off the lid to see how He did 
it, and if they get but one tiny peep they look 
around on the others of the world and with a 
knowing wink say, "I've got the secret. I know 
all about it," and then follows their elaboration 
which they call science and then claim to the 
world that it did not require a God to do that, for 
if they just had the material they could do almost 
as well. But, if they will just furnish the material 



The Purpose of Life 11 

out of which worlds and suns and moons and stars 
are made, the rest of us might admit with some 
reservations that they might. Might! Might f 
Well, they might fail even then. 

We have the world, the sun, moon and stars — 
all the things in the world, and man. As yet we 
have not discerned one purpose of it all. We 
search the book God has given us and He soon 
tells us that man was the object of his creation, 
the world was his home ; the sun to give light by 
day, the moon and stars by night; that the ele- 
ments, sunshine and rain, heat and cold, and the 
fertility of the soil were to work together to pro- 
duce enough for his care. All the beasts and ani- 
mals, birds of the air and fishes in the water were 
for man's use, but what about man? Of what use 
was he? For what purpose? Ah! here we come 
up to the rocky precipice, a stone wall mountain 
high. 

God gave to man the authority of dominion 
over every living thing and latent powers to use 
the forces of nature for his benefit, but even this 
dominion would not be a sufficient reason for God 
to create a world and place in it a creature of 
man's capacity. 

If man were only an animal of superior intelli- 



12 The Purpose of Life 

gence to all other animals, to have dominion over 
all creation, that might satisfy man's reason for 
existence, but man being a spiritual being des- 
tined to live throughout all eternity, we must look 
to a higher purpose to satisfy the mind of our 
Creator. So then we must search further in this 
Book of God, that possibly He has revealed his 
purpose in our creation. 

Can the mind of man go no higher? Is it 
sacrilege to try to fathom the purposes of the 
Infinite? Must man go on groping in darkness 
through the ages, come into life a helpless babe 
to be nurtured and cherished by loving hands 
through infancy and childhood, struggle through 
young life to acquire an education to gain a liv- 
ing for a wife, to beget more children, to repeat 
the process that has just gone before, and so on 
over and over, again and again, with no outlook, 
groping his way as a blind man in the glare of 
the noonday sun? Thousands and millions have 
walked this w^ay from the dawn of time, many 
growing weary have fallen by the way ere the 
journey was well begun; many more, restless un- 
der the restraints of civil life have sought out 
many devices and inventions to while away their 
time, and almost invariably these diversions are 



The Purpose of Life 13 

in one way or another detrimental to the welfare 
of themselves or others, their fellowmen also on 
the jom^ney of life. And in this conflict what fur- 
nishes pleasure to one may destroy the pleasure 
of another. This is indeed a gloomy picture of 
the human race. Sunk in despair longing for the 
end, only to be repeated in the life of another, or 
recklessly indulging in worldly pleasure until the 
frail form falls exhausted and life goes out like a 
burned-out candle. In view of this interminable 
round we again ask, Is there no purpose? Does 
not God care? Does He take delight in man's 
distress? 

Our very intelhgence cries out, "No." Is there 
then a way out of this wilderness of which our 
forefathers sang, ''This world's a wilderness of 
woe"? 

We look again into God's book and read, "I 
have created him for my glory,"— a divine pur- 
pose to meet a divine end. This is a wonderful 
statement contained in so few words, so very 
brief that the world has passed it by unnoticed, 
or was it the bhnd eyes or deaf ears ''that could 
not see or did not hear the proclamation of God 
that has been ringing down the ages." 

Isaiah the great prophet of God sent this mes- 



r 



14 The Purpose of Life 

sage to man more than seven hundred years be- 
fore the coming of the Son of God, and when He 
came, He found the world steeped in ignorance, 
degradation and sin, the hght of God had well 
nigh gone out, yet a few noble souls there were 
through whom Christ could work. He gathered 
a few of the chosen ones of that number about 
him and laid before them His plans for the glori- 
ous life that was yet to come to man on this earth. 
No more to grope in darkness and fear, no more 
to tread the pathway of life as a beast of burden 
carrying his load till he falls exhausted at the end 
of the way; a slave to his passions and appetites 
that had debased him below the wild beasts of 
the forests, a burden to himself and a grief to his 
Creator. 

Christ came proclaiming a new hfe, a new 
birth! ''Born from above f' born of the Spirit 
that came from God, a Spirit that was God! So 
wonderful a message could not help but astonish 
the world and the most noble minds could not 
grasp its meaning. Nicodemus, that ruler of the 
Jews who came to the great Teacher by night 
enquiring of this new life, could not grasp its 
meaning. Christ did not see fit at that time to ex- 
plain, but left him to ponder this great truth dur- 



The Purpose of Life 15 

ing the days to come. No doubt this statement 
was handed from one of Christ's followers to 
another mitil all knew it well, yet none dared ask 
Him the meaning. 

He told them that the life he came to give was 
a great mystery. *'The wind bloweth where it 
listeth, thou hearest the sound thereof but cannot 
tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. So 
is everyone that is born of the spirit." 

Christ Hkened himself to a vine. That was a 
land of vineyards, and all were familiar with the 
vine, and when He said, ''Ye are the branches" 
they understood that he expected them to bear 
fruit, but no one yet was able to tell them what 
that fruit was to be, and when he again told them 
"Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear 
much fruit," He was then beginning to show them 
a God-given purpose in their lives, glorifying 
the Father, the same as Isaiah had stated seven 
hundred years before. But what was the fruit to 
be, and how borne ? The mind and heart of man 
was not 3^et ready to receive all of God's won- 
drous plan for the human race. Their eyes had 
been darkened and their ears deaf too long to 
see all the light or to hear his voice as yet. 

Men's hearts grew hard and their minds cruel. 



16 The Purpose of Life 

Christ, betrayed and denied by His owa followers, 
led to the cross, gave up His life, was buried and 
all seemed over. Had He remained away but a 
few brief months His followers would have scat- 
tered and the work of a lifetime would have been 
lost. But no ! He had told them He would come 
forth from the grave and meet them again. Their 
hope in this promise was very weak, but some 
hoped against hope, and soon he stood among 
them, confirming His promise; gave them their 
commission to proclaim this life in Jesus by the 
new birth of the Holy Spirit which was promised 
on condition of obedience, ten days hence. But 
none as yet were able to point the way of a 
"Glorified Father." 

God was watching over the new kingdom He 
had established in the world, and realized He had 
need of one of greater penetration of mind and 
more aggressive spirit to carry forward the work. 

Who shall it be? Ah! there goes a man with a 
rope in one hand and a parchment in the other, 
striding along with determination in every move- 
ment. Whither bound? On the work of God? 
No ! On the work of sin, going down to Damascus 
to bind and drag back to Jerusalem the humble 
followers of Christ who had fled from their perse- 



The Purpose of Life 17 

cutors, bringing them back to be stoned to death 
or hanged, for their faith in Christ. 

But, hark! A bhnding flash of hghtning, a 
voice from the cloud and the arrestor is arrested. 
Face about, I want you for a purpose, the pur- 
pose of God again revealed. 

Paulj the great apostle of the Gentiles, the 
great writer to the churches, and in these letters 
he now reveals the full purpose of God for all 
men, and how is it possible for man to compre- 
hend that purpose? 

Paul in writing to the Church at Rome felt 
the need of impressing on them the duties of the 
new life in Christ. And that being a country of 
olive orchards he likened them in their new life 
to a grafted olive tree, but reversed the process 
to make the teaching of Christ plain and told 
them that they were like the wild olive, grafted 
into a tame olive tree, but they were expected to 
bear tame ohves. In nature they knew that that 
could not be, but when they took the words of 
Christ to his disciples that "I am the Vine" He 
also meant contrary to nature as by nature they 
were prone to evil all the time, and to live even 
respectable lives, it took constant vigilance and 
then failure was often the result. 



18 The Purpose of Life 

''Remember that you do not bear the^Root, but 
the Root (Himself) bears you." So they must 
become converted or changed by the flowing of 
the life of Christ through them. No more their 
own blood flowing through their veins, but the 
blood of Christ. Ah! Yes, we are coming nearer 
to the realization of the great plan of God. 

We must look again into God's word and here 
Paul the great writer to the Gentiles is our in- 
structor. 

In his letter to the Galatians, he contrasts the 
life of men before his union with Christ and the 
life in Christ. The works of the flesh are all bad, 
all contrary to the law of God, and are positively 
forbidden to the man or woman who has been 
joined to Christ by the "renewing of the mind." 
Those then who are united to Christ in spirit will 
bring forth the fruit of the spirit in order to 
glorify the Father, and that fruit Paul tells the 
Galatians is Love, Joy, Peace, Long Suffering, 
Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temper- 
ance, Righteousness and Truth. Against such 
there is no law; corroborating the statement, "If 
the Son shall make you free you shall be free in- 
deed." 

It would hardly seem necessary to add that 



The Purpose of Life 19 

Christ said that the tree could not bear two kinds 
of fruit, "You do not gather grapes of thorns, or 
figs of thistles," neither the reverse; ''either make 
the tree good and its fruit good or else the tree 
and the fruit bad." Then shall we allow to grow 
in our lives the works or fruits of Evil, Adultery, 
Fornication, Uncleanness, Lasciviousness, Idol- 
atry, Covetousness, Wrath, Hatred, Varience, 
Emulations, Strife, Seditions, Heresy, Envyings, 
Murder, Drunkenness, Revelings and such like, 
a host of other evils named all through the word 
of God? 

Which shall we do then, live to the glory of 
God or bring dishonor to His cause and Name by 
our fruitless lives and take the chance of being 
cut off and cast into the fire? ''If thou continue 
in His goodness, otherwise thou shall be cut off" 
''for if God spared not the natural branches, take 
heed that he also spare not thee." By this he 
refers to the Jews who were rejected because of 
unbelief. Therefore let us hold onto God by 
faith in Jesus Christ and bear fruit to His glory 
that other men may see our good works, thereby 
bringing glory to our King and Lord. It is not 
the desire of God that any shall be lost, but the 
word does state ''not every one who sayeth unto 



20 The Purpose of Life 

me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 
heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father 
which is in Heaven." 

"Also, many shall say unto me in that day, 
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy 
Name? And in Thy Name cast out devils? And 
in Thy Name done many wonderful works? And 
then will I profess unto them, I never knew you ! 
Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity," Math. 
7:21-25. 

This stern denunciation is explained by the pre- 
ceding verses. Mat. 16:20, ''Ye shall know them 
by their fruits." 

Further, we must accept Christ, ''for there is 
none other name under heaven given among men 
whereby we must be saved." 

Why? Because in our own strength we cannot 
do the things God demands of us. But there is 
one God and one Mediator between God and 
man, the man Christ Jesus. Further, "The car- 
nal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither 
indeed can be." 

The fall was complete. "In Adam all died." 
The plan of salvation is perfect. In Christ all 
shall be made alive. Our work in life so simple : 
To love God, to love our fellowmen; result, joy 
and peace within our own soul. 



The Purpose of Life 21 

To state the purpose of God in man's creator 
in its simplest form is to say, "For His Glory." 
The fulfilling of that purpose is to love God. 
Love means obedience, "If you love Me, keep 
My commandments." 

"Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all 
thy heart, mind, might, soul and strength, and 
thy neighbor as thyself" and "a new command- 
ment I give unto you, that ye love one another as 
I have loved you." If we can measure Christ's 
love for sinful man, then we can measure what 
our love should be to each other. With love like 
this, comes joy. Joy is the product of Christian 
love. 

Then follows peace. If we have joy and peace, 
then it naturally follows that suffering is easily 
borne, though that suffering is long. Gentle- 
ness, the emotions subdued, by the indwelling of 
love. Goodness — just the state of being good. 
Meekness — not bold or aggressive toward others. 
Temperance — just temperate in all things; and 
all attributes acquired only by our faith. Faith 
in God as our Father who loves us and faith in 
His Son, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. 



22 The Purpose of Life 

Let us analyze the first precept, Love. 

"Suifereth long - - - Patience 

And is Kind Kindness 

Envieth not Generosity 

Vaunteth not itself, is 
not puffed up - - - Humility 

Doth not behave itself 
unseemly Courtesy 

Seeketh not its own - Unselfishness 

Is not easily provoked - Good Temper 

Thinketh no evil - - - Gentleness 

Rejoiceth not in in- 
iquity but rejoiceth 
in the truth - - u . Sincerity and Honesty 

All these attributes of the soul may be attained 
by any one; the weakest or least intelligent can 
love to his full capacity, and the strongest and 
most learned, the giant in intellect, can do no 
more. So if each have done this, he has fulfilled 
the divine plan of bringing glory to God. Any- 
thing less brings dishonor or disgrace to our 
heavenly Father. 

In view of the foregoing statements, much 
light is thrown on many of the statements of 
our Lord that were so radically different and 
opposite to all the teachings of man, previous to 
his coming. 



The Purpose of Life 23 

Take this one, ''Thou shalt love thine enemy. 
If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, 
give him drink." Now these commands to the 
natural man are entirely foreign to his being but 
even to the saved man why should He command 
him to love his enemy? 

Well, if he were not in sin he would not be his 
enemy. All men are born in sin. They are not 
lost because of their own sin, but sin because they 
are lost, and if they were not lost they would not 
be our enemy. Men may differ in opinion or in 
methods of doing things who are saved men. But 
they do not become the enemy of each other; 
hence the saved man must love his enemy. He 
cannot do otherwise for he is his lost brother, and 
if he is then saved he becomes his friend though 
even a rival in business or some activity of life. 

If we profess to love God and at the same time 
hate our fellowman, the Word tells us that is an 
impossibility. ''He that saith he loves God and 
hates his brother is a liar," and it is equally im- 
possible to love our fellowman without we first 
love God, and if we love God we must accept 
Christ as our Saviour, our Redeemer; must ac- 
knowledge that we are sinners and aliens from 
God. "If ye are ashamed to confess Me before 



24 The Purpose of Life 

men, My Father will be ashamed to own you be- 
fore the angels in heaven." 

The statement of Christ is, "Eye hath not seen, 
nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the 
heart of man, what the Lord hath prepared for 
them that love Him." Our love to God is predi- 
cated on our love to our fellows. 

If we love not our brother whom we have seen, 
how can we love God whom we have not seen? 
In such statements we see that Leigh Hunt was^ 
in his little poem "Abou Ben Adhem" more than 
half right. 

ABOU-BEN-ADHEM 
Abou-Ben-Adhem, (may his tribe increase), 
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 
And saw within the moon-light in his room, 
Making it rich like a lily in bloom, 
An angel writing in a book of gold. 

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold 
And to the presence in the room he said 
"What writest thou?" the vision raised its head 
And with a look made of all sweet accord 
Answered "The names of those who love the Lord." 

And is mine one, said Abou, "Nay not so" 
Replied the angel; Abou spoke more low. 
But cheerily still, and said "I pray thee then, 
Write me as one that loves his fellowman." 



The Purpose of Life 25 

The angel wrote and vanished, the next night, 

It came again with a great wakening light, 

And showed the names whom love of God had 

blessed, 
And lo ! Ben-Adhem's name led all the rest. 

Pg. S. 100.3. 

"Know ye that the Lord He is God; It is He that 
hath made us, and not we ourselves." 

Isah. 43.7. "I have created him for My glory, I 
have formed him; (man) yea I have made him." 

John 15.8. "Herein is my Father glorified that he 
bear much fruit." 

John 15.16. "I have chosen you, that ye should 
go and bring forth fruit." 

Gal. 5.2. "The fruit of the spirit is love." 

If then the purpose of life is to bring Glory to 
God by our love to Him, then to manifest that 
love by worship of Him is the proof of that love, 
then our worship is a manifestation of that love, 
and worship without love is no worship but hollow 
mockery. And his declaration that it is an im- 
possibility to love God and hate our fellowman, 
"He that sayeth he loves God and hates his fel- 
lowman is a liar." Then our salvation and accept- 
ance in heaven depends on our love to our own 
kind ; and since it is impossible to love our enemies 
while we are in a sinful state, it becomes inpera- 
tive that we accept Christ and be born of God and 
become new creatures. 



26 The Purpose of Life 

There is no other way. The plan is complete 
for our fulfilling the purpose of God in this life, 
thereby being fully prepared to fulfill the purpose 
of God in the life that is to come. The comple- 
tion of this life is but the commencement day of 
Eternity where we shall enjoy forever the pres- 
ence of God and all the celestial hosts and the 
place — the home that Christ has gone to prepare 
for us. 

"My heart was heavy, for its trust had been abused; 

Its kindness answered with foul wrong. 

So, turning gloomily from my fellowman, 

One summer Sabbath day I strolled. 

Among the green mounds of the village burial 
place. 

Where, pondering how all human love and hate 
find one sad level; 

How wronged and wrongdoer, each with meek- 
ened face and cold hands. 

Folded over a still heart 

Must pass the green threshold of one common 
grave, 

Whither all foot-steps tend, and none depart. 

Awed for myself, and pitying my race. 

Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave 

Swept all my pride away, and trembling, I for- 
gave." 

—Whittier. 



CHAPTER II 

PERSONALITY OF GOD 

When we now consider that God created this 
world and fitted it as a home for man who was 
designed for the sole purpose of love to his Cre- 
ator and out of that love to come reverence and 
worship, it throws light on many of the passages 
of Scripture that have always been more or less 
veiled in obscurity; and also we get a clearer 
vision of the character or personality of God. 
Take this one, ''God is love." Now an abstract 
principle is hard to comprehend, but if we reason 
from our knowledge of human love, and that God 
himself created man that He Himself might 
receive the love of man from choice, that is, that 
men by comprehending the nature of God would 
choose to love Him and obey His will. 

How it must have grieved a loving Father, as 
we now see Him when man plunged recklessly 
into sin, and ever forgetful that there was a God 
and if there was a God that He was not their 
friend, that He was cruel and vindictive, laying 

27 



28 The Purpose of Life 

on them needlessly heavy burdens. We see this 
grief in the statement, ''He repented that He 
made man," and how His great heart must have 
throbbed in pity and sorrow. When the whole 
world had gone so far front Himself and so deep 
in sin that He determined to remove them all by 
the deluge, not in vindictive wrath but in pity and 
compassion that He might have the world bring 
forth a race of people that would love HIM, not 
from necessity but from choice, for choice has 
ever been man's prerogative, "choose ye," has 
ever been the password into fellowship with God. 
How pitiful the wail of a bereaved Father as 
He refers to the Jews saying, *'I took a goodly 
vine and planted it in a fertile field, placed 
a wall about it and tilled the land and looked that 
it should bring forth fruit and it brought forth 
wild grapes." 

The chosen people ever forgetting God, going 
off in sin, worshiping idols, their punishment and 
subsequent return to God, only to again wander 
away and forget their Creator, until at last God 
gave them up as a lost race as expressed in the 
yearning grief-stricken cry of the Saviour as 
He looked over the great and wicked city of 
Jerusalem, "Oh! Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How 



Personality of God 29 

oft I have gathered you as a hen gathereth 
her chickens under her wings and ye would 
not!" 

Then when we know^ that God's desire for love 
is His purpose, how intense that longing must 
have been when He gave His only Son to wir 
men's love to Himself. ''God so loved the world 
that He gave His only Son," not only to draw 
them back to the love they had forsaken, but that 
they might be reborn into God's Kingdom where 
all His subjects love Him, and to love Him must 
also love each other. Pure love is essentially alike, 
whether in man or God so we may now more 
fully understand His saying, ''Inasmuch as ye 
did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
ye did it unto Me." 

Also what a w^onderful revelation to us now 
when Christ says, "I am in My Father, and My 
Father in Me, and I in you," all are one. Pure 
love, heaven. "Know ye not that the Kingdom of 
heaven is within you?" David had this vision 
when he said, " I shall be satisfied when I awake 
in thy likeness," not as a physical likeness but as 
God had created man "in our image" in our like- 
ness. Love, Heaven, God. A material, physical 
beautv could not make a heaven however beauti- 



30 The Purpose of Life 

f uL The glorious beauty as revealed in the Apoc- 
alypse would not be heaven were there hatred 
there. What a wonderful plan God has put in 
operation through His yearning for love of man ! 
Man! in the image of his Creator dwelling for a 
few brief years in a physical body, but a soul 
that shall live throughout all the Eternities. 
Somewhere out in the great unknown universe of 
God, a place prepared for us by our great Elder 
Brother, Christ, ''I go to prepare a place for 
you." It may be one of the glittering stars that 
we see nightly in all its resplendent beauty, or it 
may be some far more glorious place far beyond 
our human vision even with our most powerful 
mechanical aid. Why should we not love such a 
God? But, the condition of that love is, we must 
love our brother man whatever his color — black, 
brown, yellow, red or white. He is God's creation 
and our brother, and the word says, "If we say 
we love God and hate our brother we are liars." 
And it is no accident that that is in the last book 
of God's word and almost the last chapter that it 
is written, "and all liars shall have their part in 
the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, 
which is the second death." But! love, through 
the transforming power of Christ, to love as He 



Personality of God 81 

loved, what a glorious life, and what a beautiful 
world and what wonderful companionship we 
may have as we journey through this world of 
ours will be told in the following pages. 



CHAPTER III 

THE EMANCIPATION OF MANKIND 

"As man thinketh in his heart, so is he." 

Wherever the Bible has gone, the story of the 
fall of man has gone. 

The low moral condition of the race is every- 
where apparent to the most casual observer, and 
spiritual life is entirely lacking except among the 
most favored people of the world, and the most 
universal trait that is visible in all the race is a 
desire to live, with the least possible effort, and 
only by absolute need is the majority of man- 
kind induced to labor, and among so called civ- 
ilized people this tendency to shun labor often 
culminates in open rebellion. Not that people 
always know what they are fighting for or 
against, but deep down in human consciousness 
it is the desire to enjoy the benefits of the natural 
resources of the world by the least labor possible. 
Yet the more thoughtful of men know that labor 
is man's greatest blessing, but the why that this 
is so, is not so readily discerned. 

32 



The Einancipation of Mankind 38 

In so-called Christian lands the story of the 
fall of man and the consequent curse pronounced 
upon the race has had, and now has, a most bane- 
ful influence and men say that toil is the penalty 
of Adam's sin, and the thought is constantly pres- 
ent to devise some plan whereby to evade that 
penalty, even though they profess to be lovers of 
God, the desire to evade the penalty of another's 
sin is constantly present, and this is one of the 
devil's subtlest means of defeating God's plan 
for the race and destroying man's soul. Covetous- 
ness has its source in the desire to enjoy the fruits 
of toil without effort, taking from the other man 
what he has toiled to possess without giving him 
in return the opportunity to enjoy the full bene- 
fit of his own efforts. 

Herein lies the conflict. The strong desire to 
enjoy without toil, and the weaker class must toil 
without enjoying. This conflict has gone on 
since the dawn of history to the present, and 
seems destined to go on until the end of time un- 
less some means shall be used to dignify labor 
and show that God is a loving father, that His 
plans are perfect, and that He has a high and 
noble purpose in man ; that labor is working with 
God for man's good and God's glory. Such was 



34 The Purpose of Life 

man before his sin. He was placed in a garden of 
God's own making and given a commission as 
overseer and husbandman. Then came sin and 
man was driven out into the world, a curse pro- 
nounced upon the land and upon man. ''Cursed 
is the ground for thy sake." ''In the sweat of thy 
face shalt thou eat bread." 

In this decree that looks so stern and cruel, if 
we look deep, we will see God's beneficent hand. 
The great lesson he wished to teach man in His 
fleeting earth-life was obedience, and these hard 
conditions were only intended to break man's 
wilful and rebellious spirit, which conclusions we 
draw from the constant repetition throughout His 
word of the admonition to obedience and finally 
to the will of His own Son, being subject to the 
will of the Father. First the Son sent into the 
world; second doing his Father's will, and lastly 
we read, "Though he were his son, yet learned he 
obedience by the things he suffered." 

For nearly two thousand years, man lived un- 
der this baneful law of unrequited toil wringing 
from the sterile soil and thorn-grown hills a bare 
subsistence, yet in all this time God was unable to 
conquer the rebellious spirit of man, who going 
constantly deeper into sin and degradation, ever 



The Emancipation of Mankind 35 

more forgetful of God, only now and again one 
more noble in mind and spirit that remembered 
God, until at last in His infinite mercy He de- 
vised a plan to rid the world of all rebellious 
people, and make a new start to repeople the 
world with the most noble of the race, the flood 
came on as God had ordained ; only a remnant of 
mankind was saved from the great flood. But 
man was not the only thing that perished in that 
flood. When the waters subsided Noah looked 
out on a changed world. 

The raven went forth while the waters were 
still on the earth and returned not, but Noah 
would not trust the raven, a bird of unclean 
habits, he might live amid surroundings that were 
not fit for man, and again Noah sent forth the 
dove, which returned, the clean, gentle and inno- 
cent bird. Noah knew the earth was not yet 
ready for his return. Again the dove was sent 
forth, not to return again. Noah needed no 
further message, the gentle, peaceful dove goes 
forth to build her nest and repeople the air with 
birds of her kind. All is now ready. Noah and 
his family descended to the earth which is now in 
readiness for his home. After due course of time, 
Noah perceived there had come over the earth a 



36 The Purpose of Life 

change, no more the sterile soil and a constant 
strife with the thorns and thistles that sprang 
up to choke and destroy the meager crops, but 
instead the plantings of his hand flourished, 
and his fields and herds produced abundantly. 
From the gratefulness of his heart he said, "I 
will build an altar to our God and offer a sacri- 
fice to him for all his benefits." 

Noah offered a sacrifice of every clean beast 
and every clean fowl which pleased the Lord and 
he said in his heart, ''I will not again curse the 
ground any more for man's sake," for I cannot 
reform man by poverty and hard labor. I have 
tried that for these hundreds of years and it has 
been a failure. So the curse was removed and yet 
after these more than four thousand years we find 
men quoting scripture and still believing that the 
curse of the world is labor. No ! the earth brings 
forth abundantly. God rules and we have His 
promise of seed time and harvest and the forces 
of nature are promised to co-operate for the fruit- 
fulness of the soil. 

It is only sin, and the ignorance produced by 
sin, that enslaves the race. War, famine and pes- 
tilence are all produced by sin, the curse of every 
race and clime. God's bounty is inexhaustible. 



The Emancipation of Mankind 37 

the present natural resources of which we now 
know and know how to use of earth, sea and air 
will not be exhausted until others of which we 
know nothing now will become known. The 
present known resources of supply of man's need 
have scarcely been touched. Man has in manj' 
cases wasted his bounty through ignorance, but 
these defects may yet be remedied by a more gen- 
eral diffusion of knowledge, both of the intellect 
and spirit. We are God's husbandmen, whether 
we labor on the farm or in the factory, mine, 
forest or upon the sea. Our labor is to help 
beautify this world for the habitation of man, to 
build him houses to live in, to furnish those homes 
and make them pleasant, food to eat and clothing 
to wear and fuel to keep us warm. God has pro- 
vided abundance of all needed material. It is our 
privilege to use them in co-operation with the 
spirit of brotherhood, and, all diffused with the 
Spirit of God, will change the earth like unto the 
garden of the Lord. Isaiah 55:3, 10, 13, "I will 
make an everlasting covenant with you, the rain 
Cometh down and the snow from Heaven watereth 
the earth and maketh it to bring forth and bud 
that it may give seed to the sower and bread to 
the eater." "Instead of the thorn shall come up 



38 The Purpose of Ldfe 

the fir tree and instead of the brier shall come up 
the myrtle tree." If we had not that promise 
from God that he would no more curse the earth, 
our reason would teach us, we only have to look 
out upon the world to see His wondrous bounty, 
the great plains and fertile valleys, the wooded 
hills that are full of coal and iron and all the other 
varied minerals, lakes of oil and reservoirs of 
gas; the lakes and rivers full of fishes and the 
great seas with their vast stores of wealth all 
ready to man's hand to be taken for his use. When 
the resources of the eastern world were becoming 
inadequate for the needs of the race, God put into 
the heart of a man of iron will to break away from 
the superstition of the age and brave the perils 
of the great unknown sea with the consequence 
that a vast continent was discovered, that then 
had but few people which now has become under 
His providence, the granary of the world. Many 
times by our ignorance w^e fail to achieve the de- 
sired results. God intended us to use our minds 
as well as our hands to labor. If we try to raise 
corn where wheat was intended to grow, we in a 
large measure fail, likewise, wheat where we 
should raise cattle or sheep. Not all land is for 
agricultural purposes. It may be for forests to 



The Emancipation of Mankind 39 

conserve moisture, break the force of winds, or 
the great mountains to condense the moisture and 
produce rain. All these are working together for 
man's good in perfect harmony. Who would 
want to live a vegetable existence? Just grow, 
like Jonas' gourd vine, come up in a day and 
perish in a day. Just think of a city of people 
with nothing to do. It is very hard to keep them 
morally decent even when most of them are busy 
at work; w^hat w^ould it be if they were not re- 
quired to work? Work is not only every man's 
duty, but also his pleasure, and w^hat a partner 
he has, ''Workers with God," in His great garden 
that extends from pole to pole and frona sea to 
sea. 

The only slavery of man is sin; not necessarily 
his own sin, but the sins of the entire race affect 
every man. Selfishness, covetousness and lust 
bring war. War brings famine, poverty, sick- 
ness, misery and premature death to untold thou- 
sands; the spirit of progress and enterprise are 
destroyed. The staggering cost is left as a bur- 
den to coming generations. "Come let us reason 
together." Banish sin in our lives through Jesus 
Christ, take new courage and work with our great 
Heavenly Father to make this old world in deed 
and in truth, ''the Garden of the Lord." 



40 The Purpose of Life 

What a glorious world we live in 1 What won- 
drous beauty all around us! Our great forests, 
coal beds, oil fields, mountains of ore, mines of 
various minerals and stone quarries, all speak of 
the wonderful provision of God for our comfort ; 
and when we view our great prairies and river- 
valleys and mountain slopes, just waiting for the 
hand of man to till and utilize for our benefit; 
then we can turn with new assurance to the Book 
of books where God, through his prophets have 
told us of His glorious bounty in our behalf. 

In Isaiah w^e read, "For the Lord shall comfort 
Zion ; he will comfort all her waste places ; and he 
will make her wilderness like Eden ; and her des- 
ert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and glad- 
ness shall be found therein. Thanksgiving and 
the voice of melody, the mountains and the hills 
shall break forth before you into singing and all 
of the trees of the fields shall clap their hands. 
Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, 
and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle 
tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name for 
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." 

This land that was desolate is become like the 
Garden of Eden. Had the prophets viewed 
America in the twentieth century they would have 



The Emancipation of Mankind 41 

beheld the greatest garden in the world with her 
varied climate, from the severe cold of the North, 
where the small grains develop to perfection down 
through the states with their more moderate 
climate to the greatest corn fields in all the world, 
on to the gulf and Atlantic, viewing the great 
plantations of cotton and sugar and rice, the beau- 
tiful fruit orchards and vegetable gardens and on 
to the Pacific Coast, with its mild and pleasant 
climate, wonderful for fruit and grain, gigantic 
forests and mountain streams abounding in 
fishes, back across the Rockies to the great plains 
with their vast ranges for cattle and sheep; he 
would then have exclaimed as did the Southern 
Queen on her visit to the home of God's people in 
the days of Solomon. ''The half has not been 
told." Could w^e but banish selfishness, hatred 
and lust and enthrone our common Lord, then 
would come to pass, in one country at least, "the 
nations of earth have become the nations of our 
Lord and His Christ." 

Whatever your place in life may be, if you 
render service to make the surroundings more 
pleasant for man's home, you are working with 
God in keeping the world-garden, just as our 
first parents were commissioned to keep the gar- 



42 The Purpose of Life 

den of Eden. No station is too low to be noticed 
by our Father, but if our labor is for the selfish 
vanity of ourselves or others, we then lose our re- 
ward as His helpers. The miner who digs the 
coal or iron, or the mechanic who designs and con- 
structs the implements of cultivation, is no less 
a gardener than the men or women who use the 
implements. All are working for a common pur- 
pose. The shopkeeper, or railroad worker, each 
is contributing to a common purpose, working 
with God to supply the needs of men. Our ser- 
vice is to God and humanity and we are all paid, 
if our service is rendered willingly, whether our 
pay check is large or small. The question of dis- 
tribution does not enter into God's part of world- 
development, that is the social and ethical that is 
to be controlled by the spiritual law of life. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE ROYAL GUEST 

There is something perverse in human nature 
that rebels at coercion or what appears to be coer- 
cion. If there is a reason given for the commands 
laid down, and that reason meets the approval 
of the mind, there is then consent to obedience 
even though reluctantly given. But we are ever 
saying within our inmost consciousness, "Why 
may I not seek pleasure and avoid pain? Who is 
there who can tell me what I am to do if it brings 
me pleasure? Am I not free?'' But here is where 
we often fail, for the greatest pleasure is not of 
the body, but of the mind. Intellectual pleasure, 
that of admiration of beautj^ or the sublime, the 
wonders of natural phenomena ; these all endure. 
Even for months or years we look back and recall 
the scenes and the joy returns. Not so with sen- 
sual pleasure. It is but for the passing moment, 
gone never to return; each new pleasure requir- 
ing a new sensation to produce. 

When our Creator conceived the idea of mak- 

43 



44 The Purpose of Life 

ing a world and peopling it with a new order of 
being, possibly unlike any other in all his uni- 
verse, he made them male and female and gave 
them powers to bring forth others of their kind. 
He pronounced a blessing on them and gave them 
command. *'Be ye fruitful and multiply and re- 
plenish the earth and have dominion/' God pro- 
nounced His work good, and very good, appar- 
ently well satisfied with His work. But the man 
He had created He had endowed with a free will, 
the ability to choose his course of conduct. Their 
home was beautiful and everything given to meet 
their needs and but one direct command that 
meant restriction of their liberty given. This one 
command, the violation of which proved their un- 
doing. The same evil spirit that is in the world 
now, inciting men and women to the breaking of 
laws, was there, with enticing words and false 
promises. He induced the mother of the race to 
disobey the command of her Creator; but first of 
all he must destroy her belief in the good will of 
God to her. Satan told her God was a liar and 
jealous of her ability, she succumbed to flattery 
and disobeyed. Adam was not deceived, but 
yielded to the importunity of his wife. Both be- 
came guilty of disobedience; both incurred the 



The Royal Guest 45 

displeasure of God; both were banished from 
their home. The punishment given to the woman 
for her part in the fall was frequency of concep- 
tion and sorrow. 

We do not know that the nature of woman 
was changed, but from reading, we presume it 
w^as, sexual instincts stronger and will power less, 
becoming subject to the ^vill of man, and as man 
became base and animal, woman was dragged 
down to the level of a slave to man's passion and 
a bearer of children. In her rebellion at such a 
lot, every evil impulse was developed until the 
race was hopelessly depraved. 

Then came the great deluge; men and women 
were all destroyed except the few (Noah and his 
family) of the noblest and best that God could 
find from which to rebuild the race, and as we 
read the subsequent history of them and their de- 
scendants, we form no exalted opinion of them. 
But the idea of God and his right and powder to 
rule had not been entirely lost. The place of 
woman in the world socially and economically had 
scarcely changed so far as history gives, until the 
call of Abraham. 

The call of Abraham is an epoch in develop- 
ment of mankind, a new endeavor on the part of 



46 The Purpose of Life 

the Creator to build a race of noble men and 
women from the best stock He could select. In 
the three generations, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, 
they had increased from two, and they far ad- 
vanced in years, (Isaac a child of their old age), 
to seventy souls at the time of famine and the de- 
scent of Jacob into Egypt. 

God was with them in their new home. They 
were given the best of the land. Though one of 
Jacob's wives, his best beloved — Rachel — gave 
up her life at the birth of her son it seems that 
God was more lenient to the women of Israel 
than to the women of the other people around 
them. Tribal and national life was developing 
and the prosperity and perpetuation of any peo- 
ple depended upon their number, and we read 
that the women of Israel were A^ery lively and 
were delivered before the arrival of the midwife ; 
so much so that their numbers increased greatly 
to the surprise and jealousy of the Egyptians. 
Severe repressive measures were taken to limit the 
numbers of the Israelite people. It is one of the 
surprising things of history that during the 215 
years of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, 
that we have no account of their sins or any re- 
belhon against God, though the latter part of 



The Royal Guest 47 

their residence was in slavery. It was the goodly- 
vine planted in a fruitful land with contentment 
and great gain, especially numerically, and we 
can only conjecture what would have been the 
history of the world had the subsequent life of 
this people been as subject to the will of God as 
had been their lives during the 215 years in 
Egypt. 

After the flood, and Noah had come from the 
ark to again take possession of the earth, we read 
that God had given in His heart a promise to no 
more curse the earth for man's sake. Hard work 
and poor pay had been a failure in the reform of 
man, but the curse pronounced on the mothers 
of the human family remained, but subsequent 
events seem to point that God had mitigated the 
severity of the penalty on the mothers of his 
chosen people, at least up until the time of their 
going out from Egypt. Disobedience and rebel- 
lion against God and his laws had but one result : 
increased burdens. If obedient, we work with 
God; if disobedient, we work against Him, and 
we know who will be defeated. 

The history of the chosen people of God from 
their wilderness journey till the coming of the 
Messiah is a history of rebellion, sin and disgrace, 



48 The Purpose of Life 

repentance, forgiveness, restoration, repeated 
over and over, again and again, until the coming 
of the promised Messiah, and the rejection and 
dispersion of the Jevrish race. 

With the coming of Christ, a new order of 
social life was established, the worth of the indi- 
vidual man was proclaimed. The broken relations 
between God and man were restored. Man from 
this time forth was not to be governed as a supe- 
rior sort of animal, but the spiritual life devel- 
oped and a full knowledge that every person, 
whether rich or poor, high or low, learned or 
unlearned, was a soul immortal, to live through- 
out all eternity and where that eternity is to be 
spent depends entirely on our own relation to 
God here in this life. He has given us our life- 
work to perform and any shrinking from that 
work is displeasing to him. This truth Christ 
tried to make plain in the parable of the talents. 
To one he gave ten, and he gained other ten; to 
one he gave five, and he gained other five. To 
one he gave but one talent, that being so small 
he seemed to think it would not be noticed by the 
Master, so he buried the talent — just hid it away 
for safe keeping, to be returned to the Master at 
His coming, but what a surprise awaited him at 



The Royal Guest 49 

his Lord's coming! **Thou wicked and slothful 
servant." Now note the punishment, ''Thou 
wicked and slothful servant — cast ye (him) into 
outer darkness where there shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth." Not an outbroken sinner, just 
slothful, a slacker, but his penalty is that of the 
vilest sinner. Also the parable of the pounds. 
Each received one pound, one gained ten pounds 
— a phenomenal increase. One gained five 
pounds — a good increase ; but the one gained none. 
He likewise received the condemnation, ''thou 
wicked and slothful servant." "Bring hither thou 
mine enemies which would not that I should reign 
over them and slay them before me, (we must re- 
member that at that time a master had the power 
of death over his slaves) , which is equivalent to the 
banishment of the unprofitable servant in the 
parable of the talents. As the coming of Christ 
brought a new order in the relations of men, so 
also a new estimate of the individual that ac- 
cepted Him as the Christ and follow^ed him as 
their leader. Notice, "Inasmuch as you have done 
it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye 
have done it unto me." Then he reversed the dec- 
laration, saying, "As ye did it not unto one of 
these, my brethren, ye did it not unto me." 



50 The Purpose of Life 

Then again the estimate of child lif e^ was very 
low. None seemed to pay much attention to the 
children, except the parents, and that was from 
instinctive yearning and self interest. Where 
these were lacking, the child was an outcast in- 
deed, subject to slavery to anyone who wished. 
But Christ saw in the child possibilities which 
the world had never seen. For instance, where 
he said, ''Except ye be converted and become as 
a little child, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of 
Heaven." 

Again when the children were brought to him 
for his blessing and was forbidden of the disciples 
he said, ''Suffer it to be so, that is, let them come, 
for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." But 
Christ reached his climax in his extolling of child- 
hood when he declared, "He that receiveth one 
such little child in my name, receiveth me, and he 
that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me." 

The condition of this exaltation is to receive in 
His name, these children as his. He is not here 
to render them service, but if we take his place 
we are receiving the most royal guest that is pos- 
sible to man. But the first condition is that in 
character we be like Christ. 

In view of these statements we then behold the 



The Royal Ghiest 51 

glorified office of motherhood, the young wife who 
has entered the marriage stage with fear and 
trembling at the prospect of motherhood, may 
well lose her fear and rejoice in the possibilities 
that God has given her. Millions of people, al- 
most, if not quite, worship the mother of our 
Savior as the Holy Virgin and the birthplace of 
the Christ child is revered in all the world where 
His name is known, and yet Christ's revelations 
make every mother holy, who lives a holy life and 
in her child is the Christ child born anew, the 
most royal guest of all the ages, and the husband 
and father as he goes forth to toil for their sup- 
port, goes knowing, if his life is given wholly 
into God's keeping, that his home is the palace 
of a king however humble that home may be. 
The only condition is an unconditional surrender 
to God. Labor becomes light for those we love, 
and not alone because they are ours and we love 
them, but God has given us a great commission 
as Pharaoh did to the mother of the babe of the 
Nile, "Take this child and raise it for me and I 
will give you your wages." That babe was raised 
to be an earthly king, but the babe of the Christian 
father and mother is to be raised and trained to be 
a citizen of Heaven, a joint heir with Jesus Christ 
of all the glories of the celestial world. 



52 The Purpose of Life 

In view of these marvelous declarations of our 
great Lord and Master, we no more can look on 
the task of motherhood as a burden, but as a 
great privilege to be coveted instead of shunned. 
Christ foresaw a day in the advancement of civili- 
zation, or retrogression of Christianity, that 
would bring grief and banishment from the 
presence of the angels and the Joys of Heaven. 

On his way to Calvary, as the people who pro- 
fessed to love him were weeping and wailing, 
Christ gave His last and possibly only prophecy 
—Luke 23:28, 29. 

"For behold the days are coming in which they 
shall say, Blessed are the barren and the wombs 
that never bare and the paps that never gave 
suck." Then shall they begin to say to the moun- 
tains, 'Tall on us, and to the hills cover us. For 
if they do these things in a green tree, what shall 
be done in a dry?" In other words, if those who 
profess to love and follow me exalt the childless 
marriage, to what extreme of sin will the ungodlj^ 
world descend? However reluctant to admit it, 
we are now in the commencement of that period 
of which Christ prophesied, and strange as it may 
be, this great sin is most prevalent among the 
most learned and well placed financially. God 



The Royal Guest 53 

has never withdrawn his command to man. ''Be 
fruitful and multiply." But we are wont to do 
our reasoning and frame excuses for shirking re- 
sponsibility, not to man alone, but to God. But 
will God accept our pleas? Christ looked down 
the ages and saw the growing selfishness of man 
and that the refusing to bear offspring is only 
the desire to live in pleasure and the word says, 
''She that hveth in pleasure is dead while she 
lives." The purpose of men and women in mar- 
ried hfe is children, and aside from physical defect 
is there an excuse that we can render to God? We 
may frame an excuse that w^ill look plausible to 
ourselves or to the world, but we, nor they, are to 
be our judge. And in the face of so plain a declar- 
ation as that given by Christ, w^e may w^ell know 
now what the fate of the slacker will be, "Not 
everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord, will 
enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that 
doeth the will of my father which is in Heaven." 
There is no need to go into detail or statistics 
to prove that childless marriage is on the increase. 
Quality row in any town or city is too silent wit- 
ness to this fact to need any rebuttal. Many 
whole streets could scarcely furnish children 
enough to man a tennis court, and now this same 



54 The Purpose of Life 

condition is moving to the side streets and coun- 
try homes. The American people of three and 
four generations standing, are scarcely holding 
their own or are actually diminishing. The popu- 
lation is being recruited by foreign immigration 
and children of foreign emigrants. But we ex- 
claim, "What is my private affairs to anyone 
else?" We answer that by saying, ''Why shall 
we preach the gospel to an unsaved people or 
approach an unsaved man or woman and ask 
them to come to Christ?" Though you profess to 
be a Christian, live correct moral lives outwardly 
and are yet shirking your duty to God and the 
race, you are equally lost so far as your soul is 
concerned. It is not wholly a matter between you 
and your God, as you are failing to contribute to 
the future welfare of the race and losing the op- 
portunity of soul development by self denial that 
becomes necessary to rear and train a family. 

An excuse of ignorance of God's demands 
would not be accepted in any court for "Igno- 
rance of the law excuses no man." The admonition 
of Paul is emphatic. In Titus we read, "A bishop 
must be blameless, the husband of one wife, hav- 
ing faithful children, and having his children in 
subjection." An example to the children of God 
and if an example, then others should follow. 



The Royal Guest 55 

The women are promised immunity or mitiga- 
tion of suffering if they are wholly and truly 
God's. Even if some are called to give their lives 
for the life of their child. God has promised to 
care for them and they only the sooner receive 
the reward of a righteous life. In every place the 
family is not child but children, there must be 
two or more to prevent a decrease of population, 
but we are not seeking a limit, that is a question 
for you to settle alone with God, and going 
through a long married life as a slacker and then 
in old age repenting, would be like stealing a 
horse and keeping the horse until dead and then 
repenting. 

The penalty of disobedience is the same for the 
buried talent as the buried pound or covetousness 
or adultery, or any other of the more outbroken 
sins as that pronounced against the slacker in his 
or her marital relations. "There is a way that 
seemeth right, but the end thereof is the ways of 
death." 

Many of the weaker and less informed are at- 
tempting to follow the example of those who 
style themselves aristocrats, and have fallen into 
ways that have cost the lives of untold numbers 
of prospective mothers. Someone must stand 
sponsor for their death. 



56 The Purpose of Life 

If it should be that this little volume should 
fall into the hands of someone who has been de- 
prived of the great blessing of children in your 
home, can you not find it possible to open your 
heart and home to some poor child that has no 
home? Would you not wish to entertain a royal 
guest in the name of our great Lord and Master ? 
You are not to live this life for selfish ends, or an 
easy time when others need your help. These 
little ones belong to God. An institution may 
clothe and feed and educate these children, but 
it cannot give them a father's and mother's love. 

Any attempt to thwart the will of God in 
taking the life of an unborn child may be a 
greater crime than taking the life of a full grown 
man or woman. The Prophet Jeremiah says in 
Jeremiah 1 :4, that the word of the Lord came to 
him saying, ''Before I formed thee * * * I 
knew thee, and before thou comest forth of the 
womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a 
prophet unto the nations." 

We know not what place God may have in re- 
serve for that unborn babe. Likewise David in 
the 139 Psalm, and 16 Verse, says, ''Thine eyes 
did see my substance, yet being unperfect and in 
thy book all my members were written, which in 



The Royal Guest 57 

continuance were fashioned, when as yet there 
was none of them." If God knew Jeremiah and 
David and Job when they were conceived, what 
assurance have we that he does not know every 
other unborn child? 

Now as we are building our lives on God's 
word, we must live according to that word or fail, 
and if we are not building on the word of God, 
what are we building on but sand for no other 
faith will stand the test ? It must go down before 
the great ideals as revealed in Christ, and yet 
these are only such as may be attained by every- 
one, not of self, but by the unfolding of the Holy 
Spirit. 



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